Movement is Life: Part II

The primary function of our brain is to keep our body alive, which it does mainly by moving it around. From digestive movements to blinking our eyes to beating our heart to moving our arms and legs in pursuit of something to eat, our brains manipulate our bodies in the service of survival.

In times of stress, we often feel the need to do something, even when there’s nothing to be done. The British, among other cultures, have created a lovely ritual to address this situation: putting the kettle on and making tea. Movement is important if for no other reason than to give us a feeling of agency and to ward off feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Action is an antidote to anxiety.

If we are helpless or restrained when our safety is threatened, we might feel worse afterward than if we had been able to act. After all, our brains are responding with the same chemical and metabolic response whether we can actually move or not: it’s giving us the best chance for survival by getting ready to fight or to flee or to get help or any number of other actions. It takes longer for the adrenaline to wear off and we don’t feel the same sense of accomplishment if we can’t use our bodies to address the emergency at all—whatever action it is that we feel would be best.

A comforting and intriguing phenomena is that even long after an experience of helplessness, one can diminish persistent negative feelings about the event by using the body to enact a successful response: to rescript the scene without the constraints. To move and act and feel that sense of completion that was missing. To let the brain save the body by moving it.

Movement is life.